What is the Geneva Scheme?

The Geneva Scheme serves to evaluate work and identify work requirements. It was founded in 1950 by Prof. Dr. Bramesfeld and Dr. Lorenz proposed at the International Labor Evaluation Conference.

Criteria

The Geneva Scheme allows to classify and compare each activity to be performed on the basis of the following four criteria:

• Mental Requirements (mental ability and stress)
• Physical Requirements (physical ability and strain)
• Responsibility (charges)
• Environmental Influences (loads)

Mental ability, for example, would be the expertise, mental burden, for example, would be how many ideas have to be created spontaneously. Physical ability would be the skill, physical stress would be how strenuous the job is physically. The environmental influences include the working conditions such as temperatures, noise, etc.

Example

For example, if we have to compare the work of several office workers, we need to look at the needs and pressures of each job. If we compare an official, with a small company employee and a senior executive in a large company, we may come up with the same physical demands but very different responsibilities and mental demands.